Thursday, January 29, 2009

I had to get a quick lunch today. There was a lot of work to do, and I had to leave early to stand-in as a coach for an after-school activity at T1's school. So, no time to waste.I ordered a take-out, and drove to pick it up.I saw a fender bender on the way, on the opposite side. That stretch of road has no shoulder-lanes. I thought to myself that this looked like a fresh one, and I better take another route on my way back!

And did I do that? Of course not! By the time I got the fragrant Veggie Kurma from this decent desi place, and started driving back, I had completely forgotten all about the fender bender! And what should have taken 2-3 minutes, took me a good 15 minutes to get back!

What's this post leading to now? I got stuck in the mess! There was no way out! I was trapped! But that's not all!

Impatient idiots started driving on a Right-Turn-Only lane and tried to merge back into the through traffic to get ahead by...4 cars!!

I absolutely detest it when people do that! Are the rest of us morons trying to obey the rules? Does having a fancy car buy you exceptions to rules? I thought they're supposed to be more like Pup taking extra extra extra extra special care...

Anyways, these cars were not even making a good headway! I can at least "try" to understand when the traffic is miles long, on a hot day, and if you're AC is not working. Enough about me...But trying to get ahead of 4 CARS?? What's wrong with these people!!??

Oh, but today the joke was on them! (Insert Newmann of Seinfeld's sadistic laughter)...

There was this Corolla that tried the same gimmick after seeing a BMW exit and merge back. The BMW got away. But the poor Corolla was trying to merge back when this huge 18-Wheeler got behind him. The truck was all ready to take the Exit to the Highway and was annoyed at this Corolla's cheap trick.

He honked and honked again. The Corolla tried to move a little closer to the left. He was beginning to get scared...To the Corolla's horror, the 18 Wheeler kept moving forward. Move where? There was no room. No shoulder remember! I could clearly see the Corolla's blatant fear just by the way he tried to desperately inch his way away...Oh, what sadistic pleasure! It was blissful! Taught the moron a great lesson! And the truck, ever so gracefully, steered his way to the Exit in the space that was about half a lane. These 18-wheelers can come out of the narrowest of alleys without a scratch. This was no big deal! He knew that! The Corolla SO did not!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Agree that most of these expenses came from donations and Not from the tax-payers' pockets.Agree that Bush spent about the same (he raised about $42 million but the total expenses were about the same).Agree that Obama probably needs a lot more security than his predecessors, if for no other reason, only to handle the 2 million audience. Agree that this is one of the most historic events in my lifetime.

But none of that simply justifies the spending in this economy! Isn't he supposed to be just like the rest of us? So why did he approve of this spending when I and every other citizen in the U.S. is thinking twice before making even a simple indulgence?

Obama did cut some corners with the celebrations, but wish it had been more...

My respect for him and more importantly trust in him would have grown exponentially if he had cut down more than he did and kept it simple enough. That in my opinion would have made this an even more Historic and Memorable Event!

I am hoping that this spending becomes negligible when the Economy gets a boost and makes my vote worth it.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Have you heard the Little Johnny jokeLittle J: "Daddy, can you tell me what's sex?"Dad thinks, he's gotta explain this someday, so now's a good time as any, even though Johnny may be a bit too young...So he goes and explains all about the birds and the bees. Little Johnny: 'But dad, how am I going to write all of that on this Application Form?"

That joke was the first thing that came to my mind after this incident -

We were all going on a drive, the girls playing and talking, which faded away in my chat with Pup when T1 showed her middle finger and asked me what it was...! Pup and I looked like we'd seen a ghost! We did NOT expect a question like that THIS early! Fortunately , I did not get into too much detail unlike the dad in the joke...I said, "That's your middle finger..." and before I could ask why, she acknowledged..."Oh, yeah..." and continued singing, "Where is Middle Finger, where is Middle Finger?..."

There was another time when she confessed to me that she used the "F" word...! Whaaat the f...?? She went on to say, "Amma, sorry I said it's not Fair"...

This little girl of mine always cracks us up with such punch-lines. Ever since she could start talking...

Here's another recent one - T1: "Amma, you look like a teenager!"Mommy does a triple somersault (in her mind, that is).T1 Continues: "Ya, with the backpack on, you look just like a teenager!"

But right now, she desperately wants to "make up" jokes...Bless her heart, but she's terrible at it.

For example, she asks me, "Why is his name Sponge Bob Square Pants"?Answer: "He's a square, he wears pants, his real name is Bob and he's a Sponge."Dude, that is NOT a joke...

And she loves knock-knock jokes. She tries to come up with really, um...lame ones (as a mom it's really difficult to use "lame" for something that my daughter does). Sorry, but how do you let your darling daughter know that she should not try these things...? I even bought her a knock-knock joke book... She won't give up! She keeps trying. I keep telling her that she's naturally funny, and she doesn't have to make up jokes...Let's hope she gets better at it someday!!

We recently took a trip down memory lane to look for photos to complete a "Timeline" project for her school. Such nostalgic memories...

Despite all those sleepless nights she gave us, her infantile eczema, the food allergies, her back-to-back-to-back ear infections and all other health issues she has had, T1 has been an amazing trooper and an even more amazing kid!

With her hormones that are going to kick in sooner or later (later, I hope), I do not know how her personality will change, but I am proud to say now that she is ONE amazing kid! It might sound cheesy to hear this from a parent, but it's true! She's silly, she's funny, she's dramatic, she's SO mature, she's hard-working, she's silly and loves anything/anyone that's silly.

I can safely say that she's one heck of a kid all but 5% of the time - the only time that she devotes to being a typical 7 year old kid (even a 2 year old sometimes)...

All her teachers over the last three years have commented on her profound leadership qualities. She gets direct training everyday from being a big sis! She's taken this "big-sis" thing to a whole new level.She loves to take care of her little sis. She reads to T2, she pets her, helps her with her MathWizard worksheets. She even helps her brush her teeth on an occasional Sunday morning when mommy wants to sleep an extra 5 minutes...

The other day, Pup and her were picking up T2 from the daycare. She apparently asked T2's teacher if T2 ate well that day, what was it she ate, did she take too long, etc...

As a parent, I sometimes cringe when she dives in to teach other kids - whatever it is - drawing, singing, writing, counseling too sometimes - it comes across a bit ... well... "cringy"...I hope we are on the right track in cultivating her leadership qualities and making sure she doesn't come across as obnoxious!

What else do we know about her?

She loves music. She loves to practice too...Both Carnatic vocal and Keyboard...Except that I can't help her much in this dept...My cousin-B from whom she learns music aptly joked saying, "Unga rendu paerukkum paada varaathathukku sethu vechu iva paadara" - She has made up for the fact that neither of you can sing (me and Pup) :B

She does get shy and moody every now and then when people ask her to sing, but for the most part she is ready to go into an infinite loop of songs. These days, T2 joins in too, so they can do a non-stop kutcheri, so beware before you ask her to sing :)

She *loves* to draw, color, paint...She can spend days together doing just that. She has done some nice stuff in her recent Art lessons - using strokes, shading, measuring, estimating size, etc...Most of what they do is copying the teacher's original art work, and in the process they learn to estimate proportions, they learn different shading patterns, etc...

Here's one that she drew of herself - copied from the work of a professional caricaturist. This has truly been one of my "Proud Mommy" moments!!

She's growing up so fast! It's amazing! It sucks! We've even started embarrassing her now with our baby talk and silly songs!

My mitu (as I love to call her) mishy-mish, babloo is another year (and two months) older...

About Me

I am your girl next door. Just as you expect, I have my quirks and niceties. My quirks include 3 sisters and my unbelievable husband. My niceties include my precious Tees (T1 and T2 are my 2 daughters), my nieces and my nephews.
Running makes me happy! Despite my slow speed! Just being able to get out there and run (or get on the Dreadmill when I can't get out) is enough to make me happy these days.